Lesson 99

Salvation is my only function here.

Salvation and forgiveness are the same. They both imply that something has gone wrong; something to be saved from, forgiven for; something amiss that needs corrective change; something apart or different from the Will of God. .Thus do both terms imply a thing impossible but yet which has occurred, resulting in a state of conflict seen between what is and what could never be.

You are indeed in an impossible situation, because you truly believe that it is possible for something to go wrong. You believe in pain, disaster and death and you have actually convinced yourself that that has something to do with God. Anyone in their right mind knows that God, your Creator, is an all loving God. He knows nothing about all your pains and worries, He only calls you gently to remember. Now you see why your situation is impossible. You have given reality to a world that God knows nothing about. You need a change of mind. You need a miracle.

How could there be a meeting place at all where earth and Heaven can be reconciled within a mind where both of them exist? The mind that sees illusions thinks them real. They have existence in that they are thoughts. And yet they are not real, because the mind that thinks these thoughts is separate from God.

This is exactly why A Course In Miracles is an experience. You try to wrap your mind around what you just read, and you fail miserably. You sit down with your Course group and discuss what you have just read, and you miss the point entirely. The only way you can truly know what Jesus is telling you, is by the experience of it. This can't be shared, except in its totality. It goes beyond discussion altogether. The best thing you can do for your Course group is to be quiet and pray, ask for the experience and then receive it. This is personal, it is only between you and God. Forget the group, forget these people that can only reflect what you believe, and come with empty hands unto your God. Now something can happen. It's between you and God.

The Holy Spirit holds this plan of God exactly as it was received of Him within the Mind of God and in your own. It is apart from time in that its Source is timeless. Yet it operates in time, because of your belief that time is real. Unshaken does the Holy Spirit look on what you see; on sin and pain and death, on grief and separation and on loss. Yet does He know one thing must still be true; God is still Love, and this is not His Will.

You can't understand it, simply because you are operating from a very limited framework. You, as you see yourself now, have no reality whatsoever. You don't know who you are. Your mind doesn't actually think at all, and that is what you don't want to accept. What you are offered today goes way beyond your small ideas of the world and of God and of yourself. This is completely out of time, beyond the body, beyond the moon and stars. Don't try to understand it, just ask for the experience. And when you receive the experience, don't try to lock it away under a small point of reference. Just keep an open mind. Remember this, and only this:

Salvation is my only function here. God still is Love, and this is not His Will.

That's all you need to know. It suffices for today. You will never understand A Course In Miracles intellectually, but you can experience it. Right here and right now. That is what you should be asking for: the experience. Let the understanding of this course be exactly what it is: nothing. And be in the awareness of what is offered you now and every moment: everything.